The past couple of months

If you already know about my rating system then skip on down to the next header, otherwise here's the lowdown.

The rating system
The rating system I use for this blog is somewhat unique. It's not a reflection of how much I like the music itself as much as it is of how far I am along the process of conversion from consumer to fan. So, over time you may well see some of these ratings go up if I mention an artist again. And indeed go down, as musical changes of direction or failure to keep my interest are just some of the reasons that may affect a rating.


Congratulations, you've made a temporary blip of interest on my radar. Now how are you going to keep it?


I've seen enough of you to recognise and remember you, but I'm undecided so I'm not really following you (yet). I may make a spur of the moment decision to check in on what you're up to once in a while, but even that's no guarantee. May also apply to artists I am aware of, but whose music I've decided I don't have enough interest in to want to pursue further based on what I've heard.


I'm liking what I hear in general, but I still wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I will be wandering past your site occasionally, and there is something like a 50% chance I'll be buying your next offering once I find out about it, providing I have the money available.


Now I am a fan, so the chances are I'll be past your site once every month or two at least. There's a 90%+ chance your next offering is already sold, and occasionally I might even be going for something more than the basic package (if you have one)


Reserved for very few, this is about as close to internet stalker as you can get. I am actively watching because I do not want to miss your next release date, tour in my area etc. etc. You may not always be aware of the fact I'm looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to, but trust me, I'm there on a weekly if not more like a daily basis. Depending on how you tend to release your information, I may well be signed to your mailing list as well.

Video of the month
Well, not one but TWO this month, seeing as work has meant I've been slacking on writing a blog post. First up is Francis Rodino with his video for "Higher ground", which features a lady who ought to be very cold.



The second is a video from one of the artists who have managed to find me, rather than vice versa. Interestingly, I'm not that big a fan of rap, but this is one of the few that manages to slide past because it's only a part . So enjoy Left Step Band and "Weird Green" - a video which incidentally has been made by the band using some free animation software called Muvizu.



Who I've been looking at

Stickboy
I don't often rate artists with more than one star if it's the first time I've heard anything from them, but it's quite obvious from what I've heard of Stickboy so far that there's a potential four star plus on offer and likely quickly too. Given the number of tracks he has up on soundcloud and the fact I haven't found a single one I dislike in the couple of hours I've spent listening so far, I'm already hovering on the border of three stars, never mind the two I just gave. I'd describe the music as guitar based folk, but it's particularly outstanding for its production qualities (for a home-based artist) and the lyrics which are a great reminder of why I think we still have the best songwriters in the UK. So if you only listen to one new artist this month, make it this one, I promise you won't regret it.

Derek Webb
Matthew Ebel is always mentioning this artist, so when he decided to do a very rare public live internet show, I thought I'd check him out. Wasn't overly impressed myself - nothing he played made any real impact on me, though it was a pleasant enough listen and the guy can sing for sure.

Daniel Ward-Murphy
Daniel has decided to try to get a second album recorded, but instead of using a third party fundraising site, he's decided to try and collect the money himself using a Fundrazr widget. There's no official timelimit set, but Dan has said if it doesn't look like it will reach target he'll refund the money raised (minus Paypal fees). So far so good - I've got absolutely no problem with this idea in this case based on my past experience with him as he's never given me any reason to doubt that he'll do what he says.

But I find myself torn.

Why? The answer is twofold.

Firstly there's the knowledge of what I've experienced over the past six years.

The second reason is perhaps best explained if you've read his open letter about the project. The ultimatum is contains may be unintentional, but the knowledge it's there in the first place still grates. My head really can't get past the "give me the money to make this album or I'll stop making music" idea.

So on the one hand I have one of the "good guys" that I'd love to see make a second album, but given the budget set and the fact that only a digital album seems to be on offer, I'd be expecting it might well take at least a couple of years to raise that kind of money based not only on the last time, but also what I've seen of other artists and their fanbases since. Which means that on the other I'm left wondering about the commitment level and patience based on the contents of his open letter and his response to my question of how long the fundraising  would be open for. Is he really up for the timescale I'm thinking? (assuming no miracle huge level funders in the current economic climate). The timing and subject matter of a recent blog post I read, couldn't have been more appropriate or relevant on this subject.

So my current plan is to wait. My finances are planned out for the next few months already, meaning it would almost certainly be late spring before I could consider spending money on this anyway. I'm concerned at the size of the target he's set based on what I know, but I'll also be keeping an eye on how things develop.

Cheryl has released her first full album "Mermaid", under the name Jade Diary since splitting off from her band and deciding to go solo. Whilst I've not heard enough to convince me into a purchase, I'd highly recommend getting the physical album if you're interested, as it's got some of the most beautiful artwork I've seen in a while, particularly on the CD itself.

I don't know much about saintsaviour, except that I found them as a result of Soundcloud radio and was immediately attracted to the track I'd heard "Woman Scorned". And I haven't yet had time to try and chase up any further information,

I've joined the mailing list for The Traps, though they're fairly quiet on the mailing front. But I did receive a notification of their second video through this which says the song is available for free download on 19th November. Now I really ought to find the time to get out and see if they are any good live, seeing as they appear to be a fairly local band.

Yes, someone out there did it. They created a mashup of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and PSY's "Gangnam Style". And it's rather catchy in a one-hit-wonder kind of way. You can check it out here - if you think you can cope.

Lily Brooke is another find from Soundcloud. There haven't been any updates to the profile for a year, but if indeed she was 14 at the time of the uploads then that would make her only 15 now, yet she already has quite a voice. If you don't believe me, then check out her Youtube channel, which does have some more recent material. I'll be interested to see how her songwriting develops and whether she decides to pursue a career in music.

The sites I've been looking at

ONErpm
From an artist point of view, this site appears to be an alternative to CD Baby, claiming to be able to distribute your album to a wider range of sites (iTunes, Amazon etc.) for a lower setup cost. The FAQ shows the prices in dollars, but I'm seeing the same data in GBP i.e. where it says 10 dollars it shows me 10 pounds, which does lead me to question that information as the exchange rate definitely isn't anywhere near 1:1. As a result, I'm going to quote from here on using numbers rather than currency. The artist can set an album price at 8.99, 6.99 or 4.99 with individual tracks being set as 0.89, 0.69 or 0.49 accordingly. The artist will then receive 85% of the revenues for tracks sold from the ONErpm site itself or via their Facebook widget. For all other sites that ONErpm distribute the music to, they give the artist 85% of the money they receive from those sites. There is a one-time setup cost of 10.00 per track or 34.99 per album for distribution to more than 30 global music services, or you can specify individually at 1.99 per service. Pricings for distribution to premium services, mobile services and DJ services are also available on the site. The site can also supply UPC codes for albums and ISRC codes for tracks if you don't have them already.

In addition to the three pricing tiers previously mentioned the site supports "name your price" downloads and  "free track in exchange for email" options. Money is paid to an artist via Paypal.

From the fan point of view, purchases from the ONErpm site mean you get BOTH the original wav file and the mp3 with unlimited streaming and streaming before purchase available on the site itself. On the minus side, not every album on the site is available for purchase in every country, and so far I'm finding it's the names I tend to recognise as being more well-known (rather than completely obscure) where this seems most likely to apply. I'm also not convinced on the information given about the Facebook widget, which seems to suggest that someone has to "Like" before they are allowed to play the track from the Facebook widget - this seems rather back-to-front i.e. how do you know if you like something until you've actually heard it?

All in all, a site which seems potentially worth a look whether you be artist or music lover, but with a lot of the pricing information seemingly in conflict between the FAQ and what is actually displayed and the reputation of CD Baby, I'm not entirely convinced by the idea that this is a better option.

Sellaband
There's still no sign of the "new website" at time of writing. Likewise no surprise there's no sign of albums from the 2 artists from here I'm still waiting on. In fact, Lori Greco seems to be expecting yet another 4-6 months before she releases, meaning the bets are on as to whether she can even manage to release an album before 4 years after fundraising has passed, seeing as the 3 year mark passed a few months ago. There are hints that Cubworld might actually be getting close to release as he recently tweeted that 8 of 10 tracks were mixed. Who knows - maybe I'll get a birthday present.

In the meantime, I got to watch some bending of the rules in October, when an artist had their budget reduced by 300 euros on the last day before their profile was due to be deleted, only for them to fail to meet this deadline too. Seems someone then tweaked the numbers behind the scenes, as we went through several hours with the artist showing a signup date in the main listing of 24hrs after that found on their own profile, not only in terms of the signup timestamp but also comments and blog postings left too. The extra 24hrs given by the tweaked times meant the artist did reach the reduced budget (which was then left to run the normal 2 week grace for a budget change) and the dates were tweaked back to make it look as if nothing had happened. Which left me wondering if they'd have done the same for a non-featured artist or not.

Also, a couple of artists who had failed to meet their budgets the first time, failed in their second attempt. It seems one has resigned for a third try, but currently only has a fraction of the money they had when their profile got deleted for the second time. The numbers on the site are also heading back further apart again i.e. instead of less artists signing up but getting a higher percentage of budget, the number of artists is increasing slowly again but the number on at least 1% of budget is struggling to stay at the 50 mark. But one piece of good news was John C Fraser returning to the site under his new name of Please Be Frank and raising a budget in just a couple of weeks, proving it's perfectly possible to raise your budget on Sellaband if you bring your fanbase with you.

And finally...
My review of the year post will be along next. Hopefully in the next couple of days. As well as my top songs and albums of the year, this time you'll be able to discover who managed to upset a result I was originally expecting and some of the conclusions I've drawn as a result of the fan funding I've been doing since I last funded on Sellaband.